Sep 10 2021
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2
If somebody were to take the worst elements of 80's music (cheesy keys, gated drums, a dreadful moaning vocalist, all saturated in reverb and thinned waaaaay-the-fuck-out to a treble-y right hot mess) and mix it together, you'd have this album.
Not for me.
👍
Aug 27 2021
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2
I'm uhhh .. really BUMMED this album is something I had to hear before I die
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Oct 19 2022
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2
The musical equivalent of licking doorknobs.
👍
Dec 03 2021
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2
Sounds like what it is: mediocre, drug-addled, pop rock. Pretty boring, honestly. Ecstasy is not a good drug for making music, apparently.
👍
May 20 2021
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4
I'm a sucker for psychedelia and funk. Throw in some electronic soon and I fall for it. Let's be fair. This is no Stone Roses. But it is still one of the defining albums of the short-lived Madchester movement, which became associated with early rave culture in the UK. And indeed you can dance to this. Now, a lot of people think it's dated. I personally don't get that vibe, and I think it holds more than as a product of its time. Did this album remind anyone else of Public Image Ltd? That being said, I do see many of the faults associated with the album. Maybe I have a twisted music taste, but I loved each of the tracks, each with a unique sound that kept things interesting. And that's enough for me to give it 4 stars.
I don't have a favorite track, but Lazitis stood out for me (for sampling Ticket to Ride). Other tracks I really liked were Country Song, Mad Cyril, Performance, Brain Dead, Wrote for Luck, Do It Better, Hallelujah, and Rave On. That's half the album...
👍
Oct 27 2021
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4
It wasn’t as good as ‘Pills n Thrills n Bellyaches’ but this album was useful to hear that blend of New Wave and electronic influences which became the Madchester sound. This album is heavily influenced by the talking heads, the smiths, and Lazyitis was very reminiscent of the Beatles’ Ticket to Ride. Overall a nice coherent transition album.
👍
Feb 12 2021
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3
It’s no pills and thrills but I suspect a few were had in the making.
👍
Sep 30 2021
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1
Belanglos, langweilig, überflüssig - mir gehen in Bezug auf die Platten in dieser Liste, die besser nicht aufgenommen worden wären, langsam die Adjektive aus.
👍
Jan 12 2022
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1
Yeah I was pretty bummed when this came up. Terrible.
👍
Oct 04 2023
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1
I could tell I was gonna hate this within the first 10 seconds and the feeling never went away
👍
Oct 29 2023
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1
I dropped out before the first song finished. This is rough.
👍
Nov 25 2023
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1
I enjoyed watching *24-Hour Party People* a lot. It was a film that was both hilarious and well-documented. But OK, once you had that good laugh at the movie version of the band, are you supposed to automatically become a fan of them? Some characters in the Sopranos make me laugh as well. Does that mean I should try to join the mafia?
Let's just say that if I can appreciate the Happy Mondays "saga"--filled with drugs, stupid moves, and picturesque characters--that doesn't necessarily mean I'm a fan of their music. I even think that this band is probably one of the most overrated acts that has ever come out of Britain during the eighties. And I'm gonna tell you why now.
I don't know if *Bummed* is their worst or "best" album, but frankly, why should I care? Everything supposedly "important" the Happy Mondays released is just a cheesefest sonically speaking anyway, not to mention a total bore songwriting-wise. Ecstasy-induced vocal meanderings over terribly linear tracks is not my idea of what a good song should sound like. And it's not my idea of a good time either, even if I'm in a quote-unquote "party mood". Worse, the nonsensical "arrangements" in those tracks make everything sound even *more* grating. And don't get me started on those horrid eighties gated drums...
Now about the supposed critical status of this album, a little bit of translation for ya:
Writing for The Guardian, Alexis Petridis said "almost 20 years on, Bummed sounds extraordinary, but wildly abstruse". Petridis has good taste, generally speaking, but here he's being overly polite. What he really means by "extraordinary" is that the album doesn't make a shred of sense. And what he means by "abstruse" is just that : "abstruse".
Priya Elan of NME felt the album "actually dated best" out of all of the band's releases, despite Hannett's "raw production show[ing] the Madchester sound in its infancy" Translation: *Bummed* is not as *downright horrible* as other HM albums but it's still horrid nonetheless. "Dating best" within a discography doesn't necessarily mean "dating WELL".
All Music's Stephen Thomas Erlewine praised Hannett's production as "all smeared colors and harsh edges". Translation : it's a formless blob. He wrote that "decadence has rarely sounded as dangerous as it did in the hands of the Mondays". Er... Stephen, ever heard of a band called The Stooges? Or The Velvet Underground, maybe? It's probably a bit "niche" for you, i'll grant you that... Then Stephen describes the sound of the album as "stiff psychedelic funk". Is "stiff" your idea of a good time, Steve? And does such adjective go along well with the words "psychedelic" and "funk"? Later, Erlewine mentions Ryder "spitting out rhymes", and then expanded on this, calling the album the "result of [a] copious intake of ecstasy". Okaaaay, then. Stephen's idea of a good time is to be bothered by a random drunk on X spitting on him at a dive bar. But to each their own, I guess. 🤷♂️
In other words, the critics know it's a pile of shit, but they sugarcoat it the best they can. In response, I can only show scorn at their obvious hypocrisy. 1 star for the purposes if this list, which translates to something around 3/10 or s/10 for more gneral purposes. (1+ whatever...). Next, *please*.
Number of albums left to review: less than 400 (I've temporarily lost count here)
Number of albums I'll include in my own list: half so far, approximately
Number of albums I *might* include: a quarter, approximately.
Number of albums I'll never include: another quarter (including this one - many others are more important to me).
👍
Apr 01 2022
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5
I had never heard of Happy Mondays and had zero expectations going in, but I really liked this album. It definitely sounds of a time, but in many ways sounds relevant today as well. Fat White Family seems like the closest modern contemporary.
An unusual but catchy blend of dance and '80s pop rock, Bummed is great for repeat listens.
👍
Apr 15 2021
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4
Tym razem tak wyspiarsko undergroundowy albumik, ze az zwiazany z manchesterem, bo wedlug wiki jest to gatunek zwany madchester, a czym jest ten oblakany czester, wiec jest to muzyka z pogranicza funka roka, na ktora powstanie miala wspolczesna scena rave, wiec rok 88 muzyka elektro i mordownie ekstazowo lsdowe menczesteru, takie jest wlasnie tlo tego albumiku, juz nawet teraz slysze, ze ciekawie musi to brzmiec jeszcze pod wplywem psychoaktywnoych substancji, syntezatorowe noisy jak na moving in with daja ciekawe efekty, dobry odsluch, bo nie slyszalem jeszcze czegos podobnego, ozywienie psychodelicznego rokowania w nowej orginalnej postaci, tutaj syntezatory klawiszowe, a zaraz ktos na sitarce robi solowke, przy czym wokalista sobie gwizda na wszystko, doslownie, a co do wokalu, to nie jest to spiewanie wyczynowe a raczej spiewanie psychodeliczne, wiec tez dosc specyficzne, widoczne jest wykorzystanie substancji podczas tworzenia tej plyty, ale o dziwo nie ucierpiala na tym produkcja, bo albumik jest jakosciowy jesli chodzi o mastering, sprawdzam kto tam to mixowal, a to pan Martin Hannett od joy division, wiec swiatowej klasy producent, liczynie jest to zabawa w narkotyki, glowny motyw, na plejaka leci wrote for luck, brain dead i country song, jak bedzie okazja trzeba przesluchac jak wypada reszta dyskografii bandy, albo raczej ich lidera Ryderowego, bo widze, ze sporo stuffu pod innymi bandami rowniez tworzyl
👍
May 14 2021
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4
Enjoyable and catchy. Very listenable even on first play.
👍
Aug 06 2021
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4
Groovy
👍
Aug 29 2021
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4
I didn't expect this to be good and was pleasantly surprised. Started off strong with a little bit of a lull but most of this album was really good.
👍
Feb 14 2024
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2
I may have blacked out as soon as this album started and came to with what I assumed was the same song still playing 30 minutes later.
👍
Jul 05 2024
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2
Unhappy Mondays is a more appropriate name for this group, and Bummed is how I feel after listening to them drone on and on. Apparently a lot drugs were used during the recording of this album, and under the influence of drugs is probably the best way to listen to this album.
👍
Nov 24 2023
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1
I could have died happy never having hearing this. How it made this list I have no idea
👍
Nov 24 2023
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1
Woof. This was my second, and thankfully last Happy Mondays album on the list. I can't think of a single positive thing to say about this album. I didn't care for the vocals, lyrics, or music on this album. Nothing about this stood out to me at all, and it was a chore to get through. I'm really curious as to how either Happy Mondays album made it on this list.
👍
Dec 27 2023
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1
This one was terrible. I could've lived happy without hearing the awful production with all the reverb and atrocious singing. I hope the person that mixed this album was inexperienced or had a really bad day. No one could make it intentionally this dreadful.
👍
Jul 10 2024
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1
The problem with ecstasy is that it convinces untalented people that they're making good music.
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Mar 17 2021
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5
Nick was loving it!
👍
Jan 14 2022
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5
idk yet
👍
Feb 24 2022
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5
Kamalt El Hadra Ethenya M 3l Bouheli Mte3 Dostoevsky. I'm Better, Ahmed Still Needs Help. I'm Still Waiting For Calls
👍
May 04 2022
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5
I feel like I had this idea years ago where you could mix punk and new wave styles with a psychedelic flow, but I never found something that hit its mark quite like this. Magazine by Magazine was pretty good, but it was more gothic than what I had in mind. This is a perfect blend of new wave and psychedelia.
The lyrics are on point for a new wave album, but they are heavily based in psychedelic music in their tone. The cadence is very new wave, but the subjects range in a more psychedelic style than most new wave projects which I think is pretty daring. The instrumentation has a lot of contemporary aesthetics in the drums and guitars. The addition of the keys to be that 60s style is a choice that I really love since I can't get enough of that sound. Definitely a stranger album, but I think I will only like it more and more with age.
Highlights: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10.
👍
Jul 15 2022
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5
This was way better than I expected, despite the shitty prod and mix.
👍
Oct 03 2022
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5
Wicked!
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Nov 02 2022
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5
Ayyy Bez was on Pimp My Ride UK, cool guy
👍
Apr 06 2023
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5
Total revelation. Never heard of these guys before. Why????
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May 29 2023
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5
Chaotic fun, perfect soundtrack to my late 80s life
👍
Jun 21 2023
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5
I’ve kept coming back to this album for more than 30 years. It’s a complete mess from start to finish and sounds like it was recorded in a club toilet. But it’s also great in its own shambolic way. Shaun Ryder sings out of tune like no one’s listening and there’s something of the everyman in that, he’s not trying to be a rock star. He’s also a great lyricist. The way he uses the rhythms of ordinary (often sweary) language to express meaning and match the melody is extraordinary. For example, the lines from ‘Wrote For Luck’ about his lack of education: ‘I’ve not been trained, I can sit and stand and beg and roll over, I don’t read I just guess’. Ryder isn’t book smart and he can barely sing, but he’s very good with words. He was awarded the NME Godlike Genius award in 2000, and I know they give the award every year but there really is something preternaturally gifted about Shaun Ryder that justifies the genius label.
Best song: Wrote For Luck
👍
Oct 13 2023
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5
A big surprise how much I enjoyed this god damn!! I loved all the dance elements to this and ended up listening to all the bonus tracks and remixes on the deluxe version. also introduced me to paul oakenfold properly which is awesome, only knew him from a The Streets song reference lol
👍
Feb 01 2024
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5
This really scratched an itch for new wave-influenced music with a funk bent. I think I’m also partial to slightly out of tune British rock singers
👍
Apr 15 2024
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5
Я послушал этот альбом сегодня вечером, с 9 до 10 часов. Я гулял по освещенным улицам города и изначально мое настроение было не очень хорошее, но я взял себе банку пива и хорошо прогулялся, слушая его. Весь этот альбом - будто ты сидишь за столиком около сцены и медленно попиваешь, слушая расслабленно-возбужденных музыкантов. Погружение в магию звуков, сливающихся воедино невероятным потоком, истинное наслаждение. Больше всего мне понравились эти песни: Hallelujah, создающая атмосферу всепоглащающего клуба, country song, каа прекрасное начало альбома, сразу цепляющая, moving in with, продолжающая дарить опьяняющее наслаждение и lazyitis, сыгранная с использованием, мне кажется, ситары, риф которой запомнится мне надолго и прямо сейчас играющий в голове. Мне просто хорошо, я прекрасно провел время благодаря этому альбому.
👍
May 29 2024
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5
Great 80's brit pop. Somewhat nostalgic sounds with Beatles tunes and an INXS feel to it all.
👍
Jul 17 2024
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5
É como se o Clash e o New Order tivessem um filho.
👍
Oct 06 2020
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4
not another fucking Happy Mondays album.
oh wait it’s good actually. pretty tripped out. some of the songs kinda blend, but the vibe’s good. a more interesting, less sterile version of the following album.
👍
Jan 27 2021
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4
Lovely ecstasy filled tunes from the past, early psychedelic rock
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Apr 09 2021
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4
3.5. Very early nu wave vibes with some music that seems to have influenced the 80s, especially the poppier The Cure
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May 13 2021
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4
Oki Pop
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Jan 26 2021
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4
Pretty solid melding of genres. I’m into it! The lead guitar on “Lazyitis” is beautiful with all that reverb.
👍
Jun 06 2021
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4
Leuk! Smaakt naar meer.
👍
Jun 06 2021
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4
Nooit in de Happy Mondays verdiept maar dit is echt wel tof! Duidelijk waar Stone Roses zich door hebben laten inspireren.
👍
Jul 21 2021
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4
English Grunge? Yes please.
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Sep 29 2021
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4
4/5 - fun!
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Nov 26 2021
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4
Quite enjoyable at a first listen, time will tell how good.
👍
Dec 03 2021
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4
vella gay
👍
Dec 22 2021
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4
I will listen to this today!
👍
Dec 22 2021
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4
I really enjoyed listening to this album and will definitely put a few songs on my running playlist. Kinda like a mash of Talking Heads, Green Day and the Cure, if that's possible. I especially liked the first track and now can't get "lalalala redneck" out of my head. And, who doesn't like a song that ends with a horse neigh? I would advise against selling ecstasy to the army, though!
👍
Dec 31 2021
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4
Happy Mondays at their very best
👍
Jan 14 2022
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4
Pretty good album!
I’d like to use this time to ask ask the question; why is it that Spotify and Apple Music always put these remastered versions of albums up that double the songs of the original release? It’s always a bunch of B-sides or demos. Really kills the flow of an album or in the case of one like Bummed, I have no idea if this is a double album or just expanded. I have to assume because they're the latest version the studios have put out, so that’s what these services are able to license. I’ve noticed this trend more going through the list of albums and most LPs are usually only 30-45 minutes long, but the version that’s available is 2 hours long. It’s too much! It’s like if the only version of Lord of the Rings that was available was the extended editions. I would never watch them!
👍
Mar 16 2022
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4
I really liked this.
👍
Feb 03 2022
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4
Wow I didn't know what to think but I really, really liked this. Heavy Cure like sound but nothing wrong with that.
👍
Apr 28 2022
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4
old school
👍
Apr 29 2022
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4
Takes a while to click but once the fug clears it's great, love the grooves and just the general vibe. 3.5 rounded up
👍
May 06 2022
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4
-The singer in "Fat Lady Wrestlers" sounds a bit like Ace Frehley
-Overall a pretty nice funk/dance/rock-ish album. Generally nice. Nothing was mind-blowing, but the energy was good. Probably a soft 4 star album.
👍
May 25 2022
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4
Really cool alternative rock album from the late 80s. It presages a lot of musical ideas that will come to fruition in the 90s. Well worth a listen
4/5
👍
May 26 2022
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4
I really liked Brain Dead and Do It Better. The album was pleasant to listen to, and not much "bothered me" but not too much stood out. A 3.5 is really more accurate than a 3 or a 4 here, but since that isn't an option and I'm having a good day, it's a 4.
👍
Jun 10 2022
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4
I think Luke would break up with me if I rated this less than 4... but luckily I did really enjoy this and recognised a good few off here. It's so much of things I love about 80s rock - synths, the way the vocals are mixed, the drums. again, another album which makes me reminiscent of the 80s even though I wasn't there
👍
Jul 25 2022
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4
Felt like I was high in the first parts of the song traveling across the country and then decided to take acid when it wore off through the rest of it. Really good stuff.
👍
Jul 31 2022
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4
I wasn't sure an ecstasy-fueled psychedelic album from the 80s would be my cup of tea. But I enjoyed this more than I expected. Witty lyrics and a great 80s dance vibe made me think this might have been just the ticket for an ecstasy-fueled evening at the hottest club in 1989.
Interesting and fun!
👍
Aug 07 2022
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4
4/5
👍
Sep 04 2022
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4
A great listen
👍
Oct 06 2022
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4
Never heard this album before. Pretty great all round
👍
Oct 21 2022
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4
Sounds like The Smiths, Killing Joke, New Order and The Beatles put in a blender with a generous helping of coke and ecstasy sprinkled in
👍
Dec 18 2022
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4
Love a bit of mondys
👍
Jan 03 2023
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4
Moving in With: Drum nya keren, rima kata di liriknya jga lucu. Aransemen lagunya juga trippy, mungkin krna dri penggunaan ekstasi & obat2an yg banyak waktu rekaman albumnya.
Mad cyril: itu hammond organ kah? Boleh lah utk efeknya di lagu.
Bring a friend: di saat tertentu, vokalnya out of time, tpi instrumental album nya ttp bikin formula nya bekerja, jdi ga kacau bgt.
Lazyitis: Lgu yg ditulis jga dngan bantuan lirik dri Beatles - Ticket to Ride. Unik jga krna kyk dnger lgu Beatles tpi dimodif sama Happy Mondays
👍
Jan 05 2023
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4
Rating: 7/10
Best songs: Do it better
👍
Jan 15 2023
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4
Слушала его вчера фоном, как фоновая музыка он офигенный. Че-то бодренькое, слова повторяются, мелодии повторяются, нет никакого надрыва. Лайк.
👍
Feb 03 2023
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4
PREFS : Country Song, Performance, Brain Dead, Wrote For Luck, Bring a Friend, Do It Better, Lazy Itis
MOINS PREF : Mad Cyril
👍
Mar 09 2023
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4
Such an original and interesting piece of alternative. Mixes ‘70s punk with hint of ‘80s electronic. It feels like a precursor to something like Le Tigre. I’d never heard of this but enjoyed it quite a bit.
👍
Mar 09 2023
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4
I really like Fat Lady Wrestlers.
👍
Mar 23 2023
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4
Very fun album. Favorite track: Mad Cyril
👍
Mar 29 2023
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4
Really enjoyed this, got me into exploring the Madchester genre.
Close to a 5-star..
👍
Apr 06 2023
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4
Really enjoyed this. Kind of hard pop punk definitely from the 80s
👍
Apr 20 2023
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4
Great time. In some ways a warm up to pills n thrills but I can't get enough of the sound this band had.
A great record.
👍
May 04 2023
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4
Probably the only album themed around the movie Performance
👍
Jun 09 2023
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4
I got late to the Happy Mondays party. I listened to them for the first time around 2016; their music grabbed me instantaneously. I watched the movie/documentary "24 hours party people," and the rest is history.
Bummed is Happy Mondays at its core. It may be super dated, but the album brings great and stoned vibes that make your limbs move.
Performance, Wrote for Luck, Brain Dead and Fat Lady Wrestlers are a must in this album. Press play and enjoy mate!
👍
Jun 27 2023
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4
7/10
fun album, easily forgettable, but still pretty good
👍
Jul 07 2023
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4
This was a fun listening experience. I knew around half of the tracks really well from a "best of" album I owned in the 90s. The other half were almost entirely new to me. I can see why some people would be annoyed by the production, Shaun's vocals, or even the fact this music is very much "of it's time". None of these are problems for me in the slightest. I've always liked the stream of consciousness lyrics that Mr Ryder comes up with, the strange combination of alt-rock, psychedelia, and dance music. It was far from a perfect album, probably somewhere between a 3 and a 4 stars, but I'm going to hike it up to 4 stars for how original this was at the time.
👍
Jul 15 2023
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4
This takes me back to the good ol' days!
👍
Jul 20 2023
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4
Kinda post punk, kinda funky, kinda psychedelic
Pretty enjoyable for a lot of it
👍
Jul 27 2023
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4
Surprisingly good. I didn’t have high expectations after the opening track, which isn’t the worst thing in the world, but a definite mess. It only got better from there, though, culminating in the great songs ‘Do It Better’ and ‘Lazyitis’. At those high points especially, it’s got such a layered sound and production. A nice, dense album overall.
👍
Aug 14 2023
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4
More interesting than a lot of 80s pop.
👍
Aug 22 2023
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4
Really good rocking album. 4 stars.
👍
Sep 29 2023
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4
I always liked the Happy Mondays and this album has their distinctive style. It’s my kind of music and refreshingly different to lots of albums we’ve heard. I’m going 4* !!
👍
Oct 03 2023
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4
Being at the center of the universe always helps and, in the case of Happy Mondays, Manchester in 1988 was just the perfect place to be bummed. They just so happen to not only be on time but also rather early to the party and it shows with how uproarious and delightfully delirious the album sounds. This can take you by surprise if you let it, because it is awfully fun to have happen.
Favorites: Moving in With, Mad Cyril, Fat Lady Wrestlers, Performance, Brain Dead, Wrote for Luck, Bring a Friend.
👍
Oct 06 2023
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4
I liked this more than I remember liking it.
👍
Oct 18 2023
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4
Makes me want to try ecstacy.
👍
Nov 03 2023
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4
Solid post new wave, pre shoe gazer.
👍
Nov 10 2023
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4
Good tunes. It reminded me of INXS throughout it. It doesn't end how it started.
👍
Nov 22 2023
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4
MH 1990, aðeins fyrir mína tíð. Missti alveg af þessu og veit ekkert hvernig ég hefði tekið á málinu sem stjórnandi á þessum tíma. Söngurinn er meh, en seiðandi taktur og endurtekin stef eru góð. Afar mikið reverb og smá echo skapa merkilega mikið pláss í lögunum. Bland í poka, en oft gaman.
👍
Jan 25 2024
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4
I first discovered Happy Mondays about a year and a half ago from this list with the album "Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches." It's become one of my favorites from 1001 Albums and as a result I started listening to this album too.
I love the energy of this album. It's perfect for hyping yourself up before you go out or for rocking out while cooking. The music has such a cool style -- a little dance-y, a little druggy, a little chaotic, the drums are reverbed to the the max and the leader singer sounds absolutely wasted on every song -- I can't get enough of it. All of the layers in the songs make them sound huge. This is music that fills a room.
I love the Beatles interpolation on "Lazyitis” too.
4.5
👍
Jan 28 2024
View Author
4
so almost a 5!!
👍
Jan 31 2024
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4
Lekker Brits, ik ga dit wat vaker luisteren
👍
Feb 14 2024
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4
favourite song: wrote for luck
really enjoyed this but certainly not my favourite happy mondays album
👍
Feb 14 2024
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4
Interesting listen, I enjoyed several of the songs and was intrigued by the mixture of "samples" or riffs from popular music like The Beatles and other much larger groups. Thourougly intrigued indeed. Good stuff.
👍
Feb 25 2024
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4
Weird, bit in a really good way. The music NFS lyrics are unique
👍